Patient pay is a vital piece of the healthcare revenue cycle. However, a significant number of physician-owned practices need help to collect this critical source of revenue. According to one survey, 74% of providers send out more than two statements before receiving full payments from patients.1 Furthermore, 78% of providers struggle to collect balances exceeding $1,000 within 30 days.2
The financial stress resulting from these challenges doesn’t just have monetary implications — it profoundly affects patient satisfaction. Many patients, grappling with unclear bills and cumbersome payment processes, often feel overlooked and undervalued in their healthcare journey. To address these challenges, an increasing number of practices are adopting digital patient-pay solutions, striving to streamline billing processes and maximize revenue.
The Rise of Digital Patient-Pay
While healthcare providers and administrators once predominantly influenced practice operations, the dynamics have evolved. Today, patient preferences are paramount, dictating financial and operational decisions within practices. This trend is evident in billing, where the broad adoption of digital tools in daily life has led patients to demand greater convenience in payment processes.
A 2023 report highlights this fundamental shift:3
- 62% of patients prefer to pay their bills on an online patient portal
- 51% of patients said a text message reminder would help them pay faster
- 46% of patients prefer digital statement delivery
There’s a clear relationship between digital convenience and payment compliance. To cater to the modern patient’s expectations, physician-owned practices should adopt a digital-centric patient-pay strategy, ensuring world-class service to improve satisfaction and boost collections.
Omnichannel Billing: A Game-Changer for Collection Rates
Simply offering digital billing isn’t sufficient anymore. Patients want more than an online payment portal — they expect coordinated billing outreach, customized statements, and flexible payment options. An omnichannel approach to patient pay encompasses a range of communication methods including emails, text messages, streamlined payment portals, and even traditional mail, tailored to patient preferences. Such multipronged outreach enables practices to address varying patient expectations and is pivotal for optimizing the revenue cycle’s efficiency.
Omnichannel billing, beyond enhancing satisfaction, also addresses the needs of key stakeholders in specialized physician-owned practices. Benefits include:
- Enhancing patient engagement by reaching out through preferred communication channels.
- Providing financial transparency with clear and concise billing information.
- Facilitating payments easily via integrated digital platforms
This patient-centric, consumerist approach bolsters patient engagement, fosters loyalty, and improves collections. One survey by U.S. Bank found that 44% of patients pay their medical bills faster upon receiving notifications on digital or mobile platforms, and 49% would pay by text if available.4 The benefits of omnichannel billing are unmistakable — when patients receive bills via their preferred channels, they tend to settle their balances promptly, ensuring a healthy cash flow and lessening the administrative hassle of pursuing unpaid dues.
A Single Platform Solution
Despite the undeniable benefits, the integration of omnichannel billing remains a challenge for many. Most billing teams, due to time constraints, limited resources, or lack of expertise, find it difficult to establish a comprehensive, highly coordinated patient-pay communication system. That’s where the expertise of PatientFocus becomes invaluable.
The full-service billing solution offered by PatientFocus ensures seamless billing communication, synchronizing statements, emails, and calls, as well as a mobile-friendly web portal. Our all-in-one platform integrates various patient communication tools, ensuring smooth data transitions between systems and offering patients round-the-clock account access. Additionally, our seasoned patient-pay specialists serve as an invaluable extension to your billing department, adeptly handling the intricacies of omnichannel billing and assisting patients at every billing juncture.
Don’t miss out on transforming your organization’s revenue cycle approach. Discover how PatientFocus can empower your physician-owned practice or hospital to embrace an omnichannel patient billing strategy, resulting in enhanced patient engagement and improved collection rates. Contact us today and take the first step toward a more efficient and patient-friendly billing process.
Sources
- Trends in Healthcare Payments: Thirteenth Annual Report 2022. (2022). InstaMed. https://site.instamed.com/Trends_in_Healthcare_Payments_Annual_Report_2022.pdf
- InstaMed. (2020, April 28). InstaMed’s Tenth Annual Report Finds High Consumer Demand for Digitization in Healthcare Payments [Press release]. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200428005090/en/InstaMed%E2%80%99s-Tenth-Annual-Report-Finds-High-Consumer
- 2023 Trends in Healthcare Payments. (2023). Salucro Healthcare Solutions. https://www.salucro.com/home/content-and-resources/downloads/2023/trends-in-patient-payment-communications/
- Eppley, T. (2023, September 1). Top 3 ways digital payments can transform the patient experience. U.S. Bank. https://www.usbank.com/financialiq/improve-your-operations/manage-payments/digital-payments-transform-patient-experience.html
